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MISSION STATEMENT: The Independent Appeal strives to promote and advance McNairy County, educate and inform its citizens, while protecting the people’s right to know, and the rights and interests of our readers and advertisers. The Independent Appeal has a legacy of independent family ownership.Past publishers were: William J. Rail 1976-2000; Leslie Houston, 1974-1976; Bruce Hurt, 1970-1974; George Hamilton, 1964-1970; Wilbur Wright, 1946-1964; B. O. Weeks, 1941-1946; Ken Duke, 1938-1941; Orpheus Abernathy and Family, 1920-1938; Col. J.W. Purviance, 1902-1920. “Dedicated to the peaceful, progressive and proud people of McNairy County.”
Opinion
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Common Sense: Monetizing By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer
Monetizing is just a fancy word that means a business tries to squeeze every last dime they can out of a customer. It is often said that we have to pay for things that used to be free. The airlines are one of the biggest monetizers. The latest thing is that they are charging parents a fee to sit with their children. Built on this “unbundling” of services, such as food, pillows, blankets and legroom, they have returned to profitability. Big banks, in addition to paying miniscule interest on deposits maintained with them, offset whatever your money earns through monthly account fees, ATM fees, fees for a paper statement, to get copies of checks written or to speak to a live teller. However, community banks, such as mine, rarely do these things. Air is still free, and so is water if you drink it from the tap. However, since we spent about $10 billion on bottled water in 2009, a lot of people are not drinking it for free. Air is even being sold at oxygen bars. Everyone used to get television for free and you still can if you live near enough to a station or have a strong enough antenna. The average person spends $50 to $75 a month on cable or satellite and still has to sit through commercials. Of course, there is no free lunch, and some of the things that people are complaining used to be free, they paid for without realizing it. The airlines included all these services in your fare and you paid for advertising on “free” television every time you bought the product, since the cost of advertising was included in the price. Gas stations that used to check your oil and clean your windshield, add air to your tires and water to your radiator, if needed, now charge for these services, as well as sometimes for the use of their restrooms, though these services were presumably included in the cost of the gas you pumped when they were free. I think one aspect to this complaint is the lack of transparency. In order for markets to work, consumers need to easily access information about what they are getting and the true cost for it. The cable and satellite companies don’t do a very good job at this. I had a personal experience with this issue. After a promotional rate, my cable tripled and I became very unhappy with what I was paying and what I was getting. I did some shopping around with other cable and satellite companies, and getting them to reveal your real long-term costs is like pulling teeth. It’s not just that it is difficult to get information from them, but they sometimes present half-truths that mislead consumers in their commercials. One company I talked to is running commercials saying it’s competitor doubles rates after the promotional period. I found out that this company does the same thing. I brought this up in our conversation. I asked a customer service representative, “Aren’t you doing the same thing you are accusing your competitor of doing in your commercials?” “Yes,” the customer service rep replied. The people getting the promotional price are also being subsidized by everyone who is paying the regular price. A free public education can still be had, though the quality of it depends on where you are and the concept is being eroded by lab, course, activity and extracurricular fees. Though entry to local parks, which I take advantage of when I get a chance, is free, state and the federal government have charged fees to enjoy some parks since the 1980s. If people are so unhappy with these practices, one remedy would be to not do business with any company who engages in them. However, you can’t do that if they all do it and all of the airlines and cable/satellite companies do, with one exception, as far as I know. You could just stop doing business with the entire industry, but in some cases, that is impractical or impossible. A lot of people have stopped doing business with the cable and satellite companies. I did for a while and I may again at the end of football season. You can view a lot of the college games on one website, but they have started to restrict this content to only some cable, satellite and wireless providers. You can watch professional games on one network, but the NFL only offers internet packages for the rest in real time to people overseas. We Americans can only view our national sport on the Internet, other than the Sunday night games, on a one-day delay. This is presumably due to exclusive deals with these providers. Can you say restraint of trade? If people are really so unhappy with many of these practices, you would think entrepreneurs would start businesses and do things differently. Why more haven’t done so is a mystery to me.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Independent Appeal welcomes your opinion. Letters to the editor are subject to editing or omission for length, style or libel. All letters must include the writer’s name and signature, as well as a phone number and address for verification. The Independent Appeal does not publish anonymous letters. Letters deemed suitable for publication will run as soon as possible after receipt on a space-available basis. Because of space limitations, letters should be limited to 400 words, about two double-spaced, typed pages, one letter per person every 90 days. Mail to: Letters to the Editor, The Independent Appeal, P.O. Box 220, Selmer, TN E-mail to: submissions@independentappeal.com
Volume 110, Number 24, Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Mcnairy voices Who’s going to win the presidential election? Why?
Annie Beavers (Bethel Springs):
Barbara Day Barry Clayton Bea Pettigrew (Bethel Springs): (Bethel Springs): King (Selmer):
Holly Brunning Lloyd Hawkins (Bethel Springs): (McNairy):
“That’s a toss-up because there’s so many sides that you’ve got to try to consider, so I haven’t completely made up my mind.”
“Romney. I just think more people are going to vote for him.”
“Obama. Things were in such a mess, I don’t believe he’s had a fair chance and I believe he’ll win.”
“Romney. We need a change.”
“Well, it’s not Obama, I hope. Romney. I’m hoping he will.”
“Romney’s going to win because he’s the one that needs to be in there.”
McNairy Voices is a new feature in the Independent Appeal highlighting the opinions of average citizens about the issues that affect the citizens of McNairy County, the state of Tennessee, and the United States as a whole. The participants are randomly selected on the streets of the county. Their viewpoints are not necessarily that of the Independent Appeal.
ON THE WEB: Go to independentappeal.com and express your opinion on our related online poll.
doodles
Political Fun facts
The strange and unusual side of American politicians - By federal law since 1792, Congress has allowed states to conduct their presidential elections or otherwise choose their electors any time in a 34-day period before the first Wednesday of December, which is the day the electors meet in their state capitals. November was chosen because the harvest was over by then and winter storms had not yet begun. - Traditionally, election day is the first Tuesday after Nov. 2. Tuesday was chosen because before cars, it would take people a long time to travel to the polls. Monday was undesirable because people wouldn’t want to travel on Sunday for religious reasons. They did not want Nov. 1 because it is All Saints Day and because shopkeepers did their books on the first day of the month. - When Franklin D. Roosevelt was bedridden with polio, he asked aid Louie Howe, “Come here, Louie, I want to tell you something.” Howe moved closer, but still not within arms length. Roosevelt told him to come closer and he did. FDR then hit Howe as hard as
he could in the stomach. Howe doubled over in pain. When he recovered he asked, “Boss, why did you do that?” Roosevelt replied, “You think I’m an invalid but I could still take you in any bout.” - Lincoln once told a story about a man who stopped him while he was walking down the street. “Wait, let me get my gun.” “Why?” Lincoln asked. “I swore an oath that if I ever met a man uglier than me, I would shoot him,” the man said. “If I’m uglier than you, then fire away, because I don’t want to live,” Lincoln replied. - In 1886, brothers Alf and Bob Taylor ran against each other for Governor of Tennessee. This campaign was called the “War of the Roses.” Their father was a Whig, with Union sympathies, but their mother was a Democrat who favored the Confederacy. They campaigned together and had 41 debates. Bob once stole Alf’s speech from his hotel room and read it to the crowd. Bob
won by 13,000 votes, but Alf was finally elected in 1921. - James C. “Beat Jimmy” Jones ran against James K. Polk for Governor on the Whig ticket. Jones was a comedian as well as a politician. He was known to pull a coonskin, the symbol of his party, out of his pocket, stroke it with his hand and ask the crowd, “Have you ever seen such a fine fur?” Jones defeated Polk, who would later become President, twice, to his great humiliation. - Calvin Coolidge’s nickname was “Silent Cal.” A woman at a White House party once told him she bet she could get more than two words out of him. “You lose,” he replied. - John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were first friends, then enemies and after they retired, friends again. They both died on the same day, July 4. Adams’ last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” - A girlfriend of Gerald Ford introduced him to modeling, and both appeared in Look and Cosmopolitan magazines in the early part of the 1940s.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to members of our community who are serving in the armed forces: • Specialist Allen Alexander • SGT Joseph W. Baggett • SGT Andrew W. Bayless USMC • A1C Dustin Blakney, USAF 331TRS/FLT073 • PFC Andy Bryant • Sgt. Kyle A. Brown, USMC • GySgt. Christopher T. Byrd, USMC • PVT Matlock Caffrey, USMC • Staff Sgt. Susan Cawley • Staff Sgt. Alicia L. Coil, USAF • CPL Mandy L. Cooper, USMC • SPC Mark A. Cooper, US Army • SGT James P. Crain • PFC Anthony “Tony” Crouse • SGT Major Joel Crouse • SP4 Richard Crouse • Aaron J. Cull Senior Airman U.S. Airforce • SGT Bobby J. Dickey US Army • C.W.3 James R. Dickey, Retired • SGT Todd Joseph Drobina, US Army • Captain Bonnie Lynn Dunlop • Corporal Bradley Eisenhut, USMC • Master Sgt. Lonnie J. Ellis, Air Force
• Kip Ellison • LCPL Dwight A. Emily Jr. • PV2 Jana Estes • Specialist Bryan Ray Ferguson • PV2 Skyler Gammill, US Army • Lydia Gillis, US Navy E3 • Malcolm Gillis E6, US Army National Guard • SSGT Stephen R. Graham • Daniel Gray, USMC Lance Corporal • SGT Rob Gray, US Army • A1C Stephanie Lynn Griffin, USAF • SSGT Dustin Hamm, USMC • PFC Isaac Harville • Senior Airman James Taylor Haubrich, US Air Force • Lieutenant Colonel (Chaplain) Billy Hawkins • SPC Matthew Hemby, Army • SGT Brian W. Hendrix • SGT Timothy Hixon • Staff Sergeant Brian Lee Hood • Wes Huffman, Air Force • Private Alex Johnson, US Army • SGT Ricky L. Jordan, USMC • Army Officer 1st Lt. James Lax
• Sergeant Joseph Lilly • Captain Troy E. Mathis • 1st LT Jessica Mayfield, US Army • SPC Ritchie A. McCrary • SPC Dustin McDonald • A1C Amanda K. McMillen, USAF • Joshua Lane Meek, Army • CPL Jeffery Mitchell, USMC • SSGT Patrick Michael Moore, Nat. Guard • SGT Major Paula Norris • Pvt. Justin Overton, USMC • CPO Denise Picard Culverhouse • SPC Jeffery A. Pickett, US Army • SPC William Andrew “Andy” Pickett, Nat. Guard • SPC Robert H. Pittman, II • CPL James Scott Powell • CPL John M. Powell • Ernest Purez, Air Force • E4 Sophia Reinke • SGT. Charlie Rickman, US Army • John Robinson US Navy • S/ST Ryan Robinson Air Force • Angel Rodriguez, Petty Officer US Navy
• SPC Blake Rudd • Specialist Robert Rzasa • Veronica Sebree Petty Officer 3rd Class • Alan Seigers, Army • SFC Patrick Michael Shaughnessy • CPL Gene Smith, USMC • SPC Hector Soto, Jr., Army • CPL Sam Speck, USMC • SGT Shaun Spicher, USMC • SPC Daniel Sullivan, Army • Jeremy Thompson • ET3 Jeremy Wilbanks, US Coast Guard • PVT Demaro Wiley, SC, Army National Guard • Joseph Lloyd Williams MM3 US Navy • Master Sergeant Stanley Wilson, USAF - Retired • SPC Jeffrey Witoszczak U.S. Army • Petty Officer James Matthew Wolford EDITOR’S NOTE: If your loved one has had a change in active duty status, please contact us at (731) 645-5346.